Comedy of Errors

This is the cabinet that slides under my Robert's Sewing Desk - I LOVE it. It's made very well, on wheels and the 3 drawers are just right for a lot of my 'stuff', and I tell you it IS stuffed! The top is good for either a cutting mat or my small ironing board.

For the past year, that bottom drawer has not wanted to close the last 2 inches, so finally I decided it's time to solve that problem. I dragged out all the 'stuff' - I know there is fabric behind the drawer that became squished out of the stuffed drawer. But I can't get behind the drawer, space is too small, drawer doesn't come out, etc,. etc,. The back of the cabinet is there to STAY -- no screws.

OK, a wire coat hanger - they are getting hard to find. But it's too stiff, and didn't catch anything, and I barely could get it back out.

Next great idea -- a tube turner - you know that clever little wiry thing with the hook on the end. I wrangled that behind the drawer and ... dang it - I dropped it back there as well. 8-( (I wonder what it costs to replace one, these days?)

OK, next greatest idea, I have a small vacuum cleaner for small areas, that one hooks up to the big vacuum. That should do it. I was smart and did NOT put any fancy attachment on the hose head - didn't want THAT to get lost too. Fiddle, fiddle, uhhhh what the heck - the dang thing came unattached at the other end and now THAT's behind the drawer. Ain't no way that drawer even comes close to closing now. And to add insult to injury, I'm going to have to ask for help!

That cabinet is made well - I cannot find any way to open it. Finally decided to empty it ALL - you know, all the junk that we keep, 'just in case'. It ALL had to come out, all the threads, fortunatey the thread drawer was neat and in baskets. DH and I turned the cabinet upside down (it's HEAVY!) and finally found 4 large screws holding the bottom on. Out came those screws and voila, there is my black/white 'moo' cow fabric, a yard of smashed interfacing, my tube turner and the vacuum hose. 8-)) My Mother would say, "That's what you get for being so messy!"

Award, & Pineapple Quilt is DONE

First, I have been given an award from Elsie Montgomery at http://www.elsiequilts.blogspot.com/. Thank you Elsie, along with your kind words. Don't we all just have the best time, playing and coloring and cutting? I think we may all have become 'stuck' in Kindergarten (which I never got to attend!), only now we have grown up girly toys! Now, the rules say I must pick 3 of you to give it back .. oh my, I must give a few days thought to that ... you ALL have given ME so much in the way of ideas, support, inspiration entertainment and more! I'm thinking I know who it will be, but ... wait a few days.
For the longest time I've had nothing to say -- at the moment, my mind is bursting! (When it rains it pours!)

Here is my final decision for the corner treatment on this Pineapple Quilt. (edge is straight, photo is crooked!)

And here's the whole, DONE, and a closeup of some of the quilting.

Two thousand three hundred fifty-seven (2357) to the best of my counting ability! Including the backing and scrappy binding. It finishes at about 62 x 74.

I definitely wanted the center to blend into the border. Those boxes are actually HSTs, inserted into the border between the quilt center and the border strips. They were faced with fusible interfacing, and then pressed and appliqued down. That was easier than cutting all those separate parts, but still was time consuming. This is the second time I've used that technique - easy peasy! That particular box of strips is empty. And for those of you who get 'stuck' on matchy-matchy, I used all lights and all darks in this quilt, no mediums, and I was NOt PARTICULAR in my choices. And the pieces that I thought would not 'do', were the pieces that gave it life -- a bright blue, and some light yellow! The blocks are about 6 inches finished. I also did a scrappy binding.

Paper piecing is the way to go with small logs. My machine has knee lift and auto-thread-cutter, both amazingly efficient tools for this project. I just pressed the button to cut, and start again, with no thread snarls. Sweeeeet!

Valentines Day, Strips, and Pineapple Quilting

A lovely early Valentine surprise.
Below are some poor photos of various layouts of a Strips that Sizzle (Margaret Miller) technique. Laying them on that floor don't help much! Playing with the setting takes much more time than sewing them! And I KNOW a border will perk them up, as well as white batting! A person can get dizzy thinking of new ways to lay them out.

The last photo is my quilting start on my recent Pineapple Quilt.

I've fallen behind in blog reading - life kinda stepped in! Don't give up on me, please.

Baby Shower, and How Big was THAT Chicken?

Yesterday, two friends and I attended a baby shower for a friend's daughter, a country girl, and first-time, beautiful Mama to be.

One of the baby gifts was this tiny pair of leather chaps and spurs! 8-))
Ms. Mama-to-be also raises free-range chickens (watching carefully for coyotes) and she brought a bunch of farm-fresh eggs, that most of us quickly snatched up. Returning home, I HAD noticed the egg crate didn't even close. I placed one white store-bought, "large" egg next to the farm-fresh eggs. How big WAS that chicken that laid the egg on the right??? It's even wrinkled! Ouch!